In the present disclosure, where a document, act or item of knowledge is referred to or discussed, this reference or discussion is not an admission that the document, act or item of knowledge or any combination thereof was, at the priority date, publicly available, known to the public, part of common general knowledge or otherwise constitutes prior art under the applicable statutory provisions; or is known to be relevant to an attempt to solve any problem with which the present disclosure is concerned.
Electric motors are widely used for converting electrical energy into mechanical energy. A stator is a component in a conventional permanent magnet or electromagnet electric motor. Generally, the stator is a phased electromagnet, which, via magnetization and demagnetization, causes a rotor of the motor to rotate, thus operating the motor. Examples of electric motors include brushed motors and brushless motors.
Quality and quantity of materials used for manufacturing the stator are factors, which often contribute to an operating efficiency of the electric motor. Typically, soft magnetic alloys, such as composites manufactured under Hyperco® 50 Alloy or Vacoflux® brands, possess characteristics desired for stator manufacturing. Some of such characteristics include a high magnetic flux density and a low electromagnetic hysteresis, as exemplified via a thin hysteresis loop.
Disadvantageously however, in many electric motor applications, using soft magnetic alloys as a primary raw material is cost-prohibitive. A conventional stator core manufacturing process entails stamping a plurality of T-shaped stator teeth ringed in a sun-shape from thin laminated steel sheets, stacking the rings to a desired height and mounting the ring stacks onto a shaft for subsequent winding with a coil. As a result of the stamping step, the stamped out portions are subjected to undesired stress and the leftover portions of the sheets remain unused and are thus wasted. Although such waste is tolerable if the sheets are relatively cheap, such tolerance is impractical when the sheets are expensive, sensitive to stress, brittle or delicate, especially when the sheets include soft magnetic alloys. Accordingly, there is a need to address at least one of the foregoing disadvantages.
While certain aspects of conventional technologies have been discussed to facilitate the present disclosure, no technical aspects are disclaimed and it is contemplated that the claims may encompass one or more of the conventional technical aspects discussed herein.